The Effect of Task Difficulty and Self-Contribution on Fairness Consideration: An Event-Related Potential Study.

Liyan Xu,Wei Guo,Biye Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.709310

Abstract

Self-contribution may be an influential factor in fairness consideration and consequent behavioral decisions. Few studies have investigated simultaneous effects of task difficulty and self-contribution on fairness consideration outcomes and associated neurophysiological responses. To elucidate modulation effects of task difficulty and self-contribution on fairness consideration, 30 recruited participants played a modified ultimatum game (UG) while undergoing event-related potential measurements. A 2 (task difficulty: hard vs. easy) × 3 (contribution: other-contribution vs. both-contribution vs. self-contribution) × 2 (fairness type: fair vs. unfair) within-subject design was adopted. A significant interaction between fairness type and contribution was observed in the behavioral data, with unfair offers being more acceptable in the other-contribution condition than in the self-contribution or both-contribution conditions. In the early processing time window, feedback-related negative magnitudes were greater in the hard condition than in the easy condition. P300 responses were more pronounced when participants contributed equally to the proposer than in the self- and other-contribution conditions. These results demonstrated that individuals’ decisions are influenced by their own effort contributions relative to those of others in cooperative contexts.

Highlights

People show strong motivation for sustaining fairness in their interpersonal interactions
The interaction analysis revealed that the reaction time difference between fair and unfair offers was greater in the self-contribution condition
The present findings underscore the influence of selfcontribution on fairness consideration and demonstrate neurophysiological responses during fairness consideration over the FRN and P300 time phases

Summary

Introduction

People show strong motivation for sustaining fairness in their interpersonal interactions. Fairness consideration may lead people to sacrifice some financial benefit to themselves to punish others (Fehr and Gachter, 2002; Hu et al, 2014; Fortin et al, 2020; Nai et al, 2020) This punitive behavior may not seem beneficial, from an evolutionary perspective, this pattern of behavior can benefit interpersonal interactions in the long term while reducing the probability of similar harm in the future when faced with the same situation (Barclay, 2006; Krasnow and Delton, 2016). Fairness consideration does not depend solely on direct trade-offs between oneself and others Contextual factors, such as social distance (Yu et al, 2015; Li et al, 2020), facial attractiveness (Wu et al, 2011; Ma et al, 2017), other’s intentions (Sutter, 2007; Guroglu et al, 2011), Difficulty and Contribution Modulate Fairness self-contribution (Guo et al, 2014; Bland et al, 2017), and task difficulty can influence behavior related to fairness consideration. In neurophysiological studies, when participants played a more important part in earning activities, they were more likely to reject unfair offers; and greater self-contribution was associated with greater activity in the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and temporoparietal junction when (Guo et al, 2014; Feng et al, 2015, 2019)

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Discussion

Conclusion